Civics & Citizenship

A vital and urgent call to action about the precarious state of American democracy, charting its historical challenges and current threats, from one of our era’s most important and insightful historians....

From your friends at Pod Save America comes a useful guide to saving American democracy just in time for the 2024 election and 2025 insurrection....

Human history is full of the stories of peasants, subjects, and tribes. Yet the concept of the “citizen” is historically rare — and was among America’s most valued ideals for over two centuries....

One of the nation's preeminent scholars and a New York Times bestselling author, Eddie S. Glaude Jr., makes the case that the hard work of becoming a better person should be a critical feature of Black politics.

Behind a smokescreen of “preparing students for the new industrial economy,” early progressives had political control in mind. America’s original schools didn’t just make kids memorize facts or learn skills; they taught them to think freely and arrive at wisdom....

After almost every presentation activist and writer Mia Birdsong gives to executives, think tanks, and policy makers, one of those leaders quietly confesses how much they long for the profound community she describes....

First published in 1971, Rules for Radicals is Saul Alinsky's impassioned counsel to young radicals on how to effect constructive social change....

The Founding Fathers tried to protect us from the threat they knew, the tyranny that overcame ancient democracy. Today, our political order faces new threats, not unlike the totalitarianism of the twentieth century....

A captivating family history that illustrates how small actions can have an outsized political impact....

The #1 New York Times bestseller, now in an expanded audiobook edition that includes detailed historical context for the democracy-threatening Ukrainian conflict and a call to action for modern times....

America’s top historians set the record straight on the most pernicious myths about our nation’s past....

Michael J. Sandel shows how a surer grasp of philosophy can help us to make sense of politics, morality, and our own convictions as well....

The Founders' Speech to a Nation in Crisis is a tapestry of the Founders' own words, written in 10 chapters and woven into a single, powerful speech and call to action for every American....

Richard Dreyfuss is a forceful advocate for civic education. His latest work, One Thought Scares Me…, explains how the lack of civics education in American education for the last fifty years has led to the deterioration of all aspects of the lives of us, the people....

Robert B. Reich makes a powerful case for the expansion of America’s moral imagination. Rooting his argument in common sense and everyday reality, he demonstrates that a common good constitutes the very essence of any society or nation....

A timely collection of speeches by David McCullough, the most honored historian in the United States, that reminds us of fundamental American principles....

You can bring about positive, lasting change in the world, and you don’t have to be rich and famous or lead a big organization to do it....

For the first time, Hillary Rodham Clinton reveals what she was thinking and feeling during one of the most controversial and unpredictable presidential elections in history....

A Pulitzer Prize-winning historian explains, with electrifying clarity, why elites in democracies around the world are turning toward nationalism and authoritarianism....

In Love Your Enemies, New York Times best-selling author and social scientist Arthur C. Brooks shows that treating others with contempt and out-outraging the other side is not a formula for lasting success....

A provocative guide to how we must reenvision citizenship if American democracy is to survive, The Bill of Obligations is a bold call for change....

Engaging, incisive and acute, The New Puritans is a deeply necessary exploration of our current cultural climate and an urgent appeal to return to a truly liberal society....

From America’s favorite government teacher, a heartfelt, inspiring portrait of twelve ordinary Americans whose courage formed the character of our country.

Christina Bobb's Stealing Your Vote is the first and only investigative report into what truly happened in the 2020 elections and the cover-up that followed, and what we must do now as our next presidential election approaches....

Many people today find that their prayers don't work. And like a broken cell phone, DVD player, or TV remote, they throw prayer out as unnecessary clutter in their busy lives....

America is full of inspiring heroes. Greatness is not a chance—it is a choice. George Washington didn’t simply wake up as one of the greatest men in human history. His greatness was the sum of a lifetime of difficult and consequential choices. In Lessons in Liberty, Jeremy S. Adams distills inspiring advice from the lives of extraordinary Americans from our past.

America is at a crossroad. Current public opinion surveys report that Americans believe that the country is on the wrong track, and they are broadly pessimistic about the future. Diminishing social trust, lack of civility, and promotion of individualism over community has resulted in a country that is discontented, fractious, alienated, and divided. What is happening to our American values and virtues?

This book provides you with a clear look at the one single document that defines America, including the birth of the Constitution and the history and details of its amendments. This revision will also include recent court rulings related to the Constitution and how those decisions have ramifications for everyday Americans. If you've never fully read the Constitution before, this guide will give you an opportunity to learn about the greatest document in US history.

One of the most revered, imitated, and controversial governmental documents in the world, the US Constitution serves as the foundation for the American government and shapes the lives of Americans every day. But what do you know about its history and the impact it has on guiding an ever-evolving nation? This book provides a clear look at the single document that defines America, including the birth of the Constitution and the history and details of its amendments.

Small acts of courage matter. Sometimes, they change the world. Our history books are filled with the stories of those who fought for democracy and freedom—for idealism itself—against all odds, from Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela to Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. These iconic struggles for social change illustrate the importance of engagement and activism, and offer a template for the battles we are fighting today. But using the right words is often easier than taking action; action can be hard, and costly.

We are a nation of immigrants, never more than now. In recent decades, the numbers have skyrocketed, thanks to people coming from many continents—especially Asia, Africa, and South America. Just like their predecessors, they face countless obstacles, including political hatred. And yet, just like their predecessors, they work hard. They persist. And they become us. Veteran journalist, broadcaster, and interviewer Ray Suarez has crisscrossed the country to speak to new Americans from all corners of the globe, and to record their stories.

This is an introduction to city planning for the non-professional who wants to understand the content of city plans and the processes involved in city planning. It describes the basic elements of a city plan, and the types of policy statements they contain, and includes guidelines for establishing a citizens advisory committee to work with the staff to prepare a city plan.

A Peace Deal is coming in Ukraine. And a big price tag is coming with it. In this book, we look behind the scene at a Peace Deal being negotiated right now in October of 2022, along with the sticker shock price tag that is going to be the price for peace.

Almost 250 years ago, our Founders thought We the People were the solution. Today, it looks like we have become the problem. What happened, and what can We the People do about it? Every day, the news delivers the same story: as a nation, we are so divided, we spend more time picking fights than solving our most urgent problems. It’s exhausting and exasperating. In Remaking the Space Between Us, Smith invites us to see what lies behind this story: a growing trend in which more and more of us are seeking refuge in like-minded groups while distancing from groups different from our own.

Wilkins decided to make a congressional run when the elected official in his district reneged on his commitment not to seek re-election after five terms. Wilkins asserts that term limits would encourage greater involvement in the political process. He hopes this book will encourage citizens to retrieve the reins of power from the hands of career politicians and restore it to the American people—where it has always belonged.

Twenty-four decades ago Thomas Paine’s Common Sense proposed a bold solution to colonists struggling with an uneasy relation with Great Britain: independence, and he offered simple arguments and clear thinking. Today the United States faces the dangers of violence and terrorism and political dysfunction which seems to defy solution. Common Sense II is a nonpartisan reassessment by an independent thinker. The author argues that terrorism is too big of a problem for police and government and the military to handle, but that it is a problem for citizens, and he argues that the relation of ...

Everyone is talking about inequality in America. Thomas Piketty’s recent book Capital in the Twenty-First Century is a best-seller. However, Piketty proposes only one solution, increased estate taxes, that will be difficult to get through Congress. This book provides concrete ways to change the country to make it more equal, many of which have bipartisan support in Congress. Inequality in America has reached the flash point: we are entering a new era in the United States where our children are poorer than we are. Young adults are burdened with college loans, overpriced real estate and a ...

"Trust Shattered: Cases of Government Betrayal" is a meticulously researched, compelling narrative that unravels the complex tapestry of government actions and their profound impact on individual rights and societal trust. Spanning three distinct parts - Betrayed Bodies, Betrayed Liberty, and Betrayed Estates - this book delves into historical and contemporary instances where government intervention has overstepped, leading to significant ramifications on life, liberty, and property.

For anyone preparing for the USCIS Civics Test, "The Concise US Citizenship Test Study Guide Authorized for 2024-2025" is a crucial resource. This thorough reference, which offers succinct, understandable explanations of American history, politics, and civic values, is designed to assist applicants in navigating the challenging process of applying to become citizens of the United States.

A brief history of the Americanization movement in the United States. J. M. Beach is a lecturer at the University of Texas, San Antonio. He has advanced degrees in English, History, Philosophy, and Education. He has been a teacher and educational administrator for over fifteen years. Beach has taught many subjects in the Humanities to a broad range of students, from pre-school all the way to university, in public and private schools, in the U.S., South Korea, and China. Previously Beach was a Lecturer at Oregon State University, the University of California, Jinan University in Guangzhou, ...